Hunting Diversified

Forbrmost of my life, I've been told repeatedly that I need to stay focused. Youbrremember the kid in elementary school that constantly stared out the windowbrwishing he was out there instead of wherever he was? That kid was me. If there was a tree in view, my eyes werebrscanning it for movement of a squirrel or bird so I could watch its activity. Evenbras an adult, my short attention span gets the best of me especially when itbrcomes to my outdoor activities.

Pastbrmy childhood adventures of squirrel and rabbit hunting, I got heavily involvedbrin quail hunting in my teenage years. Of course, deer hunting was my passion,brbut I needed something to do between the morning and evening hunts. At thebrtime, our lease was on the Spade Ranch in Colorado City, TX and there was abrplethora of quail. Dad and I invested in 2 pointers and then things blossomed.brWe began travelling all over the panhandle of Texas and Oklahoma chasing quail.brWe made a perfect team because I was a much faster shot than Dad and I was leftbrhanded. All the birds that got up quick and to the right were mine. The longbrrange and left side was his. During my quail hunting stint, our two manbroperation grew to 9 dogs, 4 shotguns, custom dog trailer, cases of shotgunbrshells and all the dog accessories imaginable.

Outsidebrof the depletion of the quail population due to drought and fire ants, I'm stillbrnot sure to this day why we really stopped hunting birds. Nevertheless, we soldbrthe trailer and got out of the pointer business but it was fun while it lasted.brAfter that, I seemed to go back and get focused on deer hunting again. Newbrtechniques and bow hunting were becoming wildly popular so I picked up a bow.brToday, bow hunting is my choice of action, because it's very intense and thebradrenaline rush of letting an arrow fly is highly addictive. It's also somewhatbrscientific in terms of all the variables you have to contend with prior tobrshooting. On a personal level, I have several nice trophy deer on my walls. I'mbrjust not sure I want to chase a large buck down in south Texas at this point inbrmy life. Meat hunting is clearly my intent, so, bow hunting for big game willbralways be my fall back hobby when others grow stale.

Mybrlatest attention grabber (aka obsession) is predator and varmint hunting. Thisbrsport is an absolute fit for me, because you never do the same thing at anybrgiven moment. The latest predators of choice are coyotes and crows. To ranchers, they're both highly invasive asbreach have the capability to kill baby calves as soon as they're born into thisbrworld. Predator/varmint hunters have been increasing in numbers for severalbrreasons. One of the contributions is the popularity of the AR-15 rifle. People got tired of letting these rifles justbrsit in the gun case unused so they took them out and sighted them in for use asbrlong range varmint rifles.

Thebrrequirements for Varmint/Predator hunting are fairly minimal. You need a seriesbrof calls (a good electric caller is fine, although, I prefer mouth calls to getbrcoyotes almost on top of you), a bow or rifle, a pop up blind or somewhere youbrcan hide, and a good pair of binoculars. I like to use my AR-15, but only for long-rangebrsniper style shots over 250 yards such as those you'd find at a prairie dogbrtown. Most of the time, my Ruger minibr.30 Carbine is my choice. With a fixed power scope on it, nothing gets by it atbrless than 100 yds. Truthfully, for the round I'm shooting, anything past 100 yardsbris just guesswork and not a fair or safe shot.

Thebrjoy of diversification is when you get tired of coyote hunting for the day;brthere are options, such as crow hunting. Usually, I'll jump on the Ranger andbrmove somewhere else, preferably with some open areas. Next, I'll set up a fewbrcrow decoys and set the electric caller out in the open. If you've never been crowbrhunting, you're missing out on an absolute riot of a good time. There may notbrbe any crows visible for miles, but when they hear that call go off, they comebrout of the woods from every direction just to see the show. For crows, I preferbra shotgun because there's no challenge in waiting till they get still.

Sobrwhat's next? It's hard to keep me focused, but it's not hard to keep mebroutside. I've been secretly keeping a close eye out on the pelt market. If itbrgoes back up again, I might just have to start a series of trap lines.